


I'll Be Cleaning Up Bottles With You On New Year's Day

by sunriseseance



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, New Year's Eve, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:42:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunriseseance/pseuds/sunriseseance
Summary: Sitting behind him on the windowsill, in a truth that still feels false, is Dave. Quiet, right now. Rubbing Klaus's neck. Kissing it occasionally. New clothes, even, though still only things Klaus saw Dave wear in life. The closest he came to fancy enough for New Year's was the outfit he wore on the night they first kissed. The dates still get muddled in his head.Dave still smells like Dave. Klaus can bring that back, too. The earthy-clean skin, the slight scent of sweat, the cotton of the polo. Something else, underneath all that. Something that Klaus could recognize anywhere, could follow to the end of the world, could die to protect.---New Year's fic to commemorate my favorite holiday. Have a good year everyone <3.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 27
Kudos: 127





	I'll Be Cleaning Up Bottles With You On New Year's Day

Klaus has a glass of champagne, but it's only the second one. Snow hits the window outside, softly, and he can almost hear it if he focuses in, past the music, past the conversations floating on the warm, indoor air. 

This is the first New Year's Eve Klaus has spent indoors since he left the academy (the clubs don't count. It takes more than a roof). First he hasn't been, in one way or another, fundamentally alone, too. The chill from the window bleeds through his blanket, through the warmth of a (very reasonable) drink. 

His family is together. Really. They sit in the living room, wearing out couches that have lasted centuries. Allison spills her champagne. Luther only moved Klaus to the slightly-opened window when Klaus started smoking. 

Diego's puzzle, which he insists isn't his, keeps finding more pieces. Five and Diego work on it together. He watches them work on it together. He watches Luther help, before getting up to change the record on father's phonograph. 

11:53. 

Oh and one more thing. 

Sitting behind him on the windowsill, in a truth that still feels false, is Dave. Quiet, right now. Rubbing Klaus's neck. Kissing it occasionally. New clothes, even, though still only things Klaus saw Dave wear in life. The closest he came to fancy enough for New Year's was the outfit he wore on the night they first kissed. The dates still get muddled in his head. 

Dave still smells like Dave. Klaus can bring that back, too. The earthy-clean skin, the slight scent of sweat, the cotton of the polo. Something else, underneath all that. Something that Klaus could recognize anywhere, could follow to the end of the world, could die to protect. 

Klaus leans back, puts his head on Dave's chest, Dave's shoulder. Nuzzles into his neck. Klaus smiles at the kiss planted on his temple. He blushes, too, a bit when he catches Allison smiling at him over her glass. She winks. Klaus sneers. Dave doesn't notice. 

11:56.

Klaus has kissed a lot of people on a lot of midnights. None or them mattered. None of them existed to him beyond the kiss, and maybe the ride home. He snuck out before the morning after, when he could. Long enough for a warm bed, not long enough to linger. 

(Dave says he's sure none of them ever forgot Klaus. Not even the ones Klaus doesn't remember. Impossible, he says. Nobody could ever get over you. You're unforgettable.)

(Dave does know how much Klaus stole and lied and swindled and quid-pro-quo. The prison sentences. Dave saw the drugs and the ruination. Dave loves Klaus's worst. Unforgettable doesn't have to be a good thing, but it is for Dave.) 

He bites Dave's neck, just a nibble, and relishes the sound only he can hear. 

"You okay?" Dave asks, quietly. Klaus watches Allison try to pick up the words, watches her fail, watches her resign herself to be happy for the love. To not pick it apart. 

"I've never been better." 

11:58. 

"You're quiet." Dave runs a strong hand through Klaus's hair, down to the collar of a very ornate black shirt. 

"I'm just thinking." And he is. It's not a lie. He's thinking about tomorrow. About waking up earlier than the others (not like he sleeps anyway) and cleaning up the party (if he, with all his life under his belt, can dare to call it that) and make breakfast. Maybe every day. Maybe forever. 

Klaus thinks often about how close he got to not meeting Dave. Time travel is a hell of a meeting story. Time travel and torture and addiction and abuse that didn't have to happen, didn't have to happen the way they did, but did anyway. He thinks about how sometimes he hurts so much his bones feel the pain, and how Dave grabs his hand and squeezes it. Silly to worry about something that almost didn't happen, but he can't seem to help it. 

11:59.

"What're you thinking about?" Ghosts don't have to breathe to live, but they do to talk. When they're physical, at least. Klaus feels the vibration of Dave's throat, the dip of his Adam's apple. He closes his eyes. 

"You." Klaus whispers this. Dave laughs, but it's not a cruelty. He's genuinely delighted. 

That's the most unbelievable thing about Dave. The most foreign and magical and fake. Not that he's dead, or born in the 40s, or even so absurdly gorgeous it male's Klaus's heart hurt. Dave loves Klaus back. Dave is as astonished by Klaus's love as Klaus is. Dave loves Klaus and chooses him constantly. For the love of God, Dave loves Klaus. 

"Is it too narcissistic to ask what about me?" Dave scratches Klaus's neck, again. 

"I'm thinking about making you get up early tomorrow and make breakfast with me. Even though you can't eat it." Klaus finds and squeezes Dave's hand, after putting his glass down. 

"Count me in."

10.

Klaus loves Dave forever. Enough to put it on his skin. 

9.

The snow falls a little harder, outside. It sparkles in the light from the window, and from a street lamp. Magical. 

8.

Luther is counting the family down. He didn't stop the music, but he speaks over it. Vanya joins him. 

7\. 

Klaus sits up. He can't miss this. 

6\. 

Dave's eyes are a blue Klaus didn't know existed. A warm blue. They flutter a bit under Klaus's gaze and Klaus revels in all of this. 

5.

Klaus is fragile. His head is broken, and there's glass inside that shakes all around. Dave knows this. He's gentle. 

4.

Dave said "I love you" first. In a jungle in Vietnam. So quietly Klaus could barely hear it. He replays it constantly. 

3.

Klaus said it back. 

2.

"I love you." 

"I love you, too." 

1.

They kiss. Dave's lips taste like Dave and Klaus has never craved anything more. They're soft, they have a ghost of warmth, they greet him. Invite him in. Dave pulls him closer. 

"Happy new year!" Allison says. She throws glitter on Klaus and Dave. On purpose. Klaus didn't know he could love his sister more. His hair is curly. He'll never get the glitter out. They'll never get the glitter out of anything, ever. Take that, Dad. 

"Happy new year" Dave says, brushing some glitter off of Klaus's face, "I love you. I'm excited to get to do this new year with you. And all the rest."

"Me too" Klaus says, and he means it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy new years y'all <3


End file.
